When preparing for a Six Thinking Hats session, note down what each hat color will stand for and make this information clearly and readily available to participants. Feel free to deviate from the universal meanings of each hat and adapt it to your workshop goals. It would be a good idea to print this information out on a sheet and hand it out for everyone to refer back to at any point in the exercise.

A Six Thing Hats brainstorming session will typically involve:

1. Donning the thinking hats: Set up a screen that displays a thinking hat for a set duration. For example, start with the white hat and have it on screen for 5-10 minutes. Follow this up with the blue hat, green hat, red hat, and so on until you’ve covered all 6. You can have participants wear physical hats, but it’s completely optional.
2. Noting down ideas: First, instruct people to adopt the perspective associated with the hat on display. For example, ask people to list all the facts they know about the problem at hand when the white hat is on display. Next, have them note these down on sticky notes, one idea per note, and repeat it for all 6 hats.
3. Engaging in discussion: Have all participants post their ideas on a surface. You can proceed to discuss these ideas as is or group similar ideas together in clusters and prioritize them.